NFL Playoffs Begin With Wild Card Weekend

Two days, four games, one Wild Card Weekend! All on national
television.

And the eight clubs kicking off the 1998 NFL playoffs this
Saturday and Sunday seek to travel the same road as last year's
Denver Broncos, who went from Wild Card team to Super Bowl champion.

"We're in the dance!" says running back Larry Centers
of the Arizona Cardinals, who will see their first playoff action
since 1982.

Saturday's Wild Card games will mark the 37th and 38th times
since 1970 that two teams have met for the third time in a season
in the playoffs.

In the early game (ABC-TV, 12:30 PM ET), the AFC East Buffalo
Bills travel to the division-rival Miami Dolphins. Both quarterbacks
in the game have vast playoff experience - though not all in the
NFL.

The Dolphins' Dan Marino has thrown 29 touchdown passes in
14 playoff games and needs two to tie Terry Bradshaw for second-most
(behind Joe Montana's 45) in playoff history. Yet the NFL's career
leader in all major passing categories has yet to win a Super
Bowl.

His counterpart with the Bills, Doug Flutie, has won three
league championships - in the Canadian Football League. In 1992,
Flutie led the Calgary Stampeders to the CFL's Grey Cup title,
then repeated the feat with the Toronto Argonauts in 1996-97.
All three times, he was chosen the game's MVP.

Now he's looking to add the Vince Lombardi Trophy to his Grey
Cup championships.

"The reason I came down from the CFL was to win the Super
Bowl," Flutie says.

Marino's intent is to duplicate Denver's Super Bowl feat of
'97. "Hopefully, we can do like the Broncos did last year,"
he says. "They were a wild card, got on a roll and got momentum
going in the playoffs."

The Bills started out the season with no momentum. They lost
their first three games, including in Week 2 at Miami, 13-7. But,
thanks in part to Flutie (7-3 as a starter in '98), Buffalo became
the fifth team in NFL history to make the playoffs after an 0-3
start. They won their next five after 0-3, with the fifth being
a 30-24 victory over the Dolphins. Four of the past five games
between the clubs have been decided by seven points or less.

In Saturday's second Wild Card game (ABC-TV, 4:05 PM ET), an
updated version of those old "Cardiac Cards," the Arizona
Cardinals, will be in their first playoff game since 1982, visiting
the NFC East-rival Dallas Cowboys, who are in their sixth playoffs
in the past seven years.

You can't get more intense than the Cardinals were this season.
They set an NFL record by winning seven games by three points
or less. Included was their no-time-left, 52-yard-field-goal victory
(16-13) last Sunday over San Diego that earned them their first
playoff berth in 16 years. The Cowboys - their 32-19, .627 playoff
record ranks second all-time - have defeated the Cardinals 16
of the past 17 times, including twice this year. Division champion
Dallas became the first team ever to go undefeated and untied
(8-0) in the NFC East.

But these are the never-give-up Cardinals, led by hometown
(Arizona State) hero Plummer. In two seasons, he has taken the
Cardinals to nine victories in the 11 games in which they trailed
or were tied in the fourth quarter.

Plummer's quarterback rival with the Cowboys, Troy Aikman,
ranks second all-time in playoff history with a 96.0 passer rating
(to Bart Starr's 104.8) and is the most accurate passer in playoff
annals with a 66.5 completion percentage.

The Cardinals, along with the Bills and New York Jets, are
one of three 0-2 teams to make the playoffs. They should keep
a statistic in mind when they confront Dallas Saturday. Since
1966 (the first Super Bowl season), there have been 12 occasions
in the playoffs that a team faced a rival that had beaten them
twice in the regular season. The 2-0 teams won the third game
seven times, the 0-2 teams five times.

In Sunday's early Wild Card game (CBS-TV, 12:40 PM ET), it
will be a matchup of two stellar rookie running backs -- and perhaps
the return of two top quarterbacks.

It's the New England Patriots at the AFC Central-champion Jacksonville
Jaguars - a rematch of the 1996 AFC Championship Game.

The Jaguars - in the first home playoff game in franchise history
-- feature the NFL's top rookie rusher, Fred Taylor. The first-rounder
led the league's rookies in rushing yards with 1,223, and his
14 rushing touchdowns tied for second in the NFL. Taylor's six
100-yard rushing games are the most by a rookie since 1995 (New
England's Curtis Martin, 9).

"If you're not careful," says CBS analyst Phil Simms,
who will broadcast the game, "the Jaguars will run it down
your throats."

The Patriots have that same capability in Robert Edwards, who
finished second (1,115 yards) in rookie rushing to Taylor. He
is only the third rookie in New England history (Curtis Martin:
1,487 in '95 and John Stephens: 1,168 in '88) to rush for 1,000.

The quarterbacks? The guys who got their teams into the playoffs
finished the season on the bench, nursing injuries. Drew Bledsoe
(finger) led the Patriots to a 20-6 victory in that '96 Championship
Game on the way to Super Bowl XXXI over the Jaguars' Mark Brunell
(ankle).

Even with the total of five games they missed, Bledsoe and
Brunell each threw for the fifth most touchdowns in the AFC, 20.
Scott Zolak for the Patriots and Jonathan Quinn for the Jaguars
would be the replacements.

"I'll be there," says Brunell. "Even if I have
to hop all over the field, I'll be there."

So will two teams who always seem to be there when the playoffs
begin - the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers.

In the final Wild Card game of the weekend (FOX-TV, 4:15 PM
ET), these teams meet for the fourth consecutive year in the playoffs,
the second-longest such streak to the five years in a row of Oakland
vs. Pittsburgh from 1972-76.

The 49ers are hoping Sunday's home game helps reverse the outcome
of the last three playoff meetings of the teams - Divisional Playoff
victories by Green Bay in '95 and '96 and a Packers NFC Championship
Game win last season.

The location of the game, to one Packer, is irrelevant. "Doesn't
matter," says Green Bay tight end Tyrone Davis. "Wherever
we play, if we play like we can play, we'll win."

The game will be a matchup of the NFL's No. 2 (49ers, 266.0)
and No. 3 (Packers, 256.9) passing games.

Quarterbacks Steve Young of the 49ers, with the most TD passes
in the league this year (36), and Brett Favre of the Packers,
with the third-most (31), can throw to three of the top 10 receivers
in the NFC.

Green Bay's Antonio Freeman led the conference in receiving
yards with 1,424, and has had a combined 300 yards and three touchdown
catches in his past two games against the 49ers, including 107
and one TD in last season's Championship Game. San Francisco's
Jerry Rice (1,157) and Terrell Owens (1,097) ranked fourth and
seventh in yardage in the conference, respectively.

The Packers are seeking to become the first NFC team to go
to three consecutive Super Bowls. "We expect to go back,"
says Freeman.